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1 TRANSCRIPT VICE PRESIDENT H UBERT HUMPHREY Hawaii Pre p A c ade my - Augu,st 5, Hilo Big Islanders. We gather here this evening at the Hawaii Preparatory Field House to honor certainly one of Hawaii's finest friends from Washington, certainly an individual that all of us claim as a resident of Hawaii. At this time before we begin the invocation by Rev. Boshard I would like to introduce very briefly the individuals seated at the head table. Brown. Representing the Governor,State of Hawaii, Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth (CLAP) Our Congressman in l"ashington, Congressman Spark M. MatsuP.aga and Mrs. Helene Matsunaga. (CLAP) I understand tomorrow is their second honeymoon and their 25th anniversary. (CLAP) At this time, I would like to introduce Mr. Henry Giugni, the personal representative of Senator Daniel K. Inouye. Mr. Henry Giugni. Minn. (CLAP) Our Democratic National Committee Woman, Representative Momi (CLAP) And members of the traveling party of the distinguished guest, Dr. & Mrs. Edgar Berman, Mr. & Mrs. Duane Andreas, Mr. Pat O'Connor. Our distinguished guest's Aide and Mrs. Gartner. Mr. & Mrs. David Gartner. Mr. & Mrs. Richard Polack, the Assistant Editor of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. The charming daughter of the Vice President and Mrs. Humphrey, Mrs. Nancy Solomonson. Last night the Vice President claimed for Hawaii the third Senator and the third Congresswoman, Mrs. Hubert Humphrey. Mrs. Hubert Humphrey.

2 Ladies and Gentlemen, our kamaaina, the Vice President of the United States, Mr. Hubert Humphrey. At this time, I would like to call on the Rev. Henry Boshard of the Mokuaikaua Church of Kailua, Kona for the invocation. Rev. Boshard. Let us all unite in grace. Our gracious loving Father, we would give Thee honor this evening for this most historic event and we would pray gracious Lord, that out of Thy providence Thou didst bless each one of us for the honored guest, the leaders of our Country and most especially for the Vice President of the United States of America and his family. We pray Thee gracious Lord that Thou wouldst bless our hearts, our minds, our very lives that we may always pursue the greater things for our Country. We thank Thee 0 Lord for the courageous stand that we have made in the world and even within our own Country, for regardless of the minor racial failures that we have confronted, yet we are very proud and happy ' for our wonderful country. We would pray that Thou wouldst continue to guide each one - the President, the Vice President and all those in leadership that the life of America may continue to grow greater still in the future. Now, 0 Lord, we would pray Thy blessings upon this evening's banquet that there may be joy and that there may be good fellowship. served. "EHU HI MAT E KEA KU EHU MAT KO LOKO MAT KAI KE AHI AHI IKE IA AHAAINA HAUOLI KE IA KOKO KA 0 PULI MAKAI NO A OKAKO HAKU ESU CRYSTO AMEN." Thank you very much Rev. Boshard. I understand dinner is now -2-

3 Thank you very much John, and thank you very much all the entertainers and the models. We enjoyed it very much. At this time, Mr. Vice President and Mrs. Humphrey and guests, we do have amongst us 106 young people nominated by their schools throughout the County of Hawaii. Every school, public and private is represented here amongst all these young people. And Mr. Vice President and Mrs. Humphrey, the younq people represented by Miss Mona Fukuda would like to present to Mrs. Humphrey a gift of remembrance from all of them. Mona -- On behalf of the youth of the County of Hawaii, I would likem present you with this bowl filled with our island products. Thank you very, very much. I thank you so very, very much for this. This will be prized highly at our home with our children. I can't tell you how lovely it is to be back here again with you. I don't know whether very many of you remember but I was here in 1964 and campaigned for our President and Vice President and I went back with a story of how lovely and how wonderful people were here to us and how, what a part of our whole United States they are and with all of this ethnic background of different varieties of people you truly represent one of the very best cultures in our United States. Thanks for having us again. The distinguished Vice President of the United States as you know, wields a very heavy and quick gavel as he presides over the United States Senate. In Hawaii, we do not have the traditional occidental gavel but rather we use the poi pounder as a gavel and sometimes as a weapon as well as the presiding officer. -3-

4 At this time on behalf of all of us here,the people of the County of Hawaii, we would like to present an authentic Hawaiian gavel to the Vice President of the United States so that he may use it upon some of the dissident senators of the United States Senate. The Vice President of the United States -we would like to present to you at this time our Hawaiian gavel. ~11, thank you very much Mr. Kimura, and my good friend Congressman Matsunaga and all of the very distinguished fellow Americans that have graced this wonderful school this evening and honored Mrs. Humphrey and myself and our daughter Nancy, we want to thank you very, very much. Personally, I'd just say that this gavel which is a unique and is so typically Hawaiian will not just be a--- well so to speak a shelf piece or just some place for a library but I am going to take this gavel to the United States Senate when I return and the very first day of my return, when I preside, I shall open the United States Senate with that gavel and the way we do it (CLAPPING) and I should say to the distinguished Reverend Clergy tonight that the way that the Senate opens is for the presiding officer, the Vice President of the United States, to escort the Chaplain of the Senate or the clergyman that is serving as chaplain that day to the rostrum and the Vice President stands one step aside at the time that the prayer is given. But prior to the giving of the prayer, the Vice President stands along side of the desk of the Senate and he says something like this (POUND) -- the Senate will be in order. The Chaplain will lead us in prayer. And you will, if you hear a loud bang corning from the banks of the Potomac young folks -- you will know that it was this gavel that caused that. Don't think i.t's a I thunderstorm. It will just be the Vice President using this gavel to -4-

5 call that distinguished body together. I think I ought to send it over to the House too because they have a lot of commotion over there with when you have a fellow like Sparky Matsunaga running around in the House of Representatives and Patsy Mink -- why you are bound to have a little commotion. This isn't the night for speech making. I guess that I have already had all the joy that a man can have on an occasion like this. I wanted so much to meet all the young people that were here and of course all the rest of you too. I know that Mrs. Humphrey and I have been honored tonight as few other people are honored or have been honored. We have in this gathering the leaders of this Island, the leaders of this county and in many ways the leaders of this State. I was privileged to meet you individually and I wanted to do so much that I left this head table to come down to say hello. The reason we go to so many dinners to meet so many wonderful people and then all at once somebody ushers us out and we never get to say hello to people that we want to see. I don't think it is half as important that you i see us as we see you and I wanted very much the chance tonight just to in the old fashioned way to shake hands just to say hello or Aloha as you say here. Is that better, Sparky? Fine. He's been coaching me. And I have tonight had that opportunity and I want to thank you very much for seeing to it that the young people came here this evening. I believe I can say that I have never met finer young people and I like young people and meet them all around the world but I have seen the world here this evening. I don't know of any time I have been prouder to be Vice President of the United States than tonight. (CLAPPIN~) For some reason you know how to make us very / happy. There is a sense of joy and happiness of these islands in this -5-

6 wonderful State. America became a richer, a better, a happier, and I think a greater country when Hawaii became the 50th State of the Union, (CLAPPING) and I'd just like to leave these words with our young people in particular. These are very trying days back on the mainland as you have read in the papers. You know, we are having lots of troubles but as I was sitting here thinking about what I was going to say to the lawyers on Monday noon even though I already have it all written out, I have always been wondering whether that was really what I wanted to say. I have spent hours working on it and I feel I want to do it all over again tonight. But as I was sitting here and looking at you and thinking about our country, my job, or should I say my position of responsibility, I began to wonder whether or not I wasn't emphasizing too much in these days, the troubles that we're having rather than the progress that we have made. You see, there is never a time that progress comes but what there is a period of turbulence and trial and difficulty. It has always been the same. It will never change. I could use many analogies. When the automobile became the mode of transportation the people that had the stage coach, the livery : stable, had trouble. Progress brought with it change and change brings with it what people call trouble. When our great labor unions were organized to provide better salaries, better wages, better working conditions for the working people, there was trouble. Lots of it. I wonder if we remember that there we~e sit-down strikes where people literally took over the factories and people wondered whether our country would survive it. There was trouble when the women wanted to get the right to vote. Plenty of trouble. You'd be surprised how -6-

7 ( these gentle little ladies raised cain and caused all kinds of trouble. There have been all kinds and times of periods of difficulty and what I am saying to you is simply this -- and to the young people in particular. Don't lose faith in yourselves and don't lose faith in the social system -- the political and social system that has made possible this State, the United States of America, that has made possible this pluralistic society, this very diversified culture. This wide variety of nationalities blended into one country and yet each preserving its own identity as we saw here tonight. We have never wanted to be all alike. We want to preserve our differences, but to preserve them in harmony because imagine what it would look like if everybody wore the same colored clothes, if everybody looked alike, if everybody talked alike, if everybody thought alike. It would be so deadening, it would be unbelievable - unbearable. The main thing that we have to learn is how to be different without being too difficult - how to have unity without uninamity. How to have a feeling of working together without being told exactly what to do and I think you have learned that here in Hawaii, and we have to learn it in every one of the other forty-nine states. You can help -- you can help us a great deal. I want the young people of this State to make it their goal and objective to have the kind of peace, the kind of harmony, the kind of social harmony that will set an example for all the rest of the United States of America. You simply can -- you must do it. This is the greatest thing that you can do. If you can do it and you have done it thus far, and you must continue to do it. Never listen to the haters. Don't let anybody divide you. Remember that you have grown up together, lived toqether, built together, that many of you tonight -7-

8 are people of different, mixed ethnic racial backgrounds and you are the better for it and if you continue to live in that spirit, we can prevent things like happened in Detroit, or Newark or other tragedies that have befallen our country. I can think of no greater service that young people can do for America today than to teach their elders how to live together in harmony and in brotherhood. If we can do that we will be the strongest nation on the face of the earth. If we can't, there is no amount of money, no amount of guns, no amount of wealth, no amount of industry that can make America strong. As a matter of fact, America will be shattered and torn apart unless it can do what you are doing in this part of America. You represent a small part in a very real sense of a great nation in size but you represent a great part of the promise of America and that is what I think is so- very important. That is what I had running through my mind as I looked at you and listened to you tonight. Now that is a very serious message for you. Now, let me just tell you that I've got a full fledged sunburn today and I, maybe this is why I feel so warm. I have enjoyed this dinner immensely. I know that we're going to have two more wonderful days here. We are going to have to leave here very early on Tuesday morning because I must be back to Washington; in fact I really ought to leave Monday night but I am going to sneak an extra few hours in. Don't you tell the President. Just keep it a secret. We are going to stay here on the Big Island as long as we can and then we'll have our Monday with the American Bar Association with the lawyers. We'll visit some of your people, we'll visit the hospital, some schools and then we'll journey back to Washington. I said tonight to Mr. Kimura, this wonderful Chairman of your County, what a man! -- what a man! -- by the way, you know he got his -8-

9 law training under Dr. Dean Fraser who used to be the Dean of the law school of the University of Minnesota - who went out to California. No wonder he is such a great guy. (CLAPPING) But I said to him, what a great thing it would be if in the days ahead some of our big airlines could just work out some kind of special program to bring -- and Sparky, we want to get on this -- you and Helene you've got to get to work on this and Mr. Brown I know will help and Governor Burns and others to get two or three hundred of you, well, at least a hundred at a time, to come to Washington, How many of you have seen Washington, D.C. I'd be interested -- how many of you have seen the nation's capitol? Put your hands up. How many of you have seen the nation's capitol7 Well, I want to tell you that it would be a great thing if you would see it and sometime we ought to work out scmething. I will get with Danny Inouye and I'll get with Sparky here and we will see if you can't work out something in cooperation with your State Government to get young people to come and see their nation's capitol. You ought to see it. My, just think of seeing Mt. Vernon - it is beautiful! The Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Mem rial, the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Institution. All these wonderful places! The Capitol of the United States which is the most fascinating building, I t hink, in America and the White House l and every young American ought to have that chance. So somehow, someway, you start working in your schools now; you start - put a project out right now. I did this for my home state when I was a Senator. When I became a United States Senator there were very few Minnesottans that had ever come to Washington and I thought what a pity. I /used to =9-

10 see the kids from the eastern schools you know -- well Washington belongs to you. It doesn't just belong to Pennsylvania or Maryland or Virginia. It belongs to everyone of us in the fifty states of this republic. And so I went back to my home State and I went around from school to school and I said now listen, let's get busy and let us have projects started and start saving up money and of course there they can get on the bus or on a train and they can come into Washington and they can spend a week there and go up to the United Nations, go down to Williamsburg where you see one of the old Colonial communities that has been totally rebuilt just like it was at the time that Thomas Jefferson was Governor of the State of Virginia way back in the early 1700's. Marvelous experience! Now you've got all the schools represented here. What you ought to do tonight is to work out a program where you take representatives of the schools just like we have here tonight and from the Big Island and it can be spread all the way through the whole State. And you work out, I don't know how you may do it - you may have to sell things, wash cars, do things, pool your money, whatever you have, whatever kind of arrangements you can have to get some money, put it in a pot, pool it -- find some way to get back there and get to see your capitol. We do not want the people of the State of Hawaii to be so very far away from Washington that their youngsters haven't seen the capitol of the United States. It's just a little ways, doesn't take much time, and I am sure that together we can work out something that will see that you get there. So that is my idea for you for tonight. Now, of course, this is a good crowd to start with and they have these big airplanes that can carry 175 to 200 people. It takes just a few ~our

11 You know that we flew from Fort Worth, Texas -- Fort Worth, Texas to Hilo in 7 hours and 15 minutes - non-stop -- shffft - just like that. If you get a little tail wind, you can make it in less time. So think about it. Well, that's about all except to tell you that you have been very gracious, very kind. Mrs. Humphrey is, I know, just overwhelmed with your kindness. All of us are - I want to thank you for all of our party that traveled with us here today have a lot of fun. Thank you for putting on this pageant tonight to tell us about your background, to tell us all about the wonderful, wonderful State. of Hawaii Wasn't it 1778 that you started this? That is just two years after the Declaration of Independence. And as a matter of fact, it was only in 1777 that the battle of Saratoga that we were quite sure that we might be independent. And in 1778 when Captain Cook came around here, that was the day that was assured that America would amount to something, even though he was an Englishman. Thank goodness the English didn't get you. Thank goodness that we're all one family together. The meeting insofar as the Vice President is concernp.d is not adjourned but the Vice President is going to sit down. (BANG!) (CLAPPING) Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President. You know, may I gossip a bit about the Vice President. When the Island of Hawaii extended the invitation to the Vice President and Mrs. Humphrey and all his friends to visit Hawaii, we recognized the many details had to be looked after to work with the advance people and all of the agents. So we thought we'd ask many questions when they came. Can we do this, can we do that. Will the Vice President allow this? And I had heard in an early national magazine - I th mk it was the Atlantic or one of the prestigeous magazine that pointed out the treatest quality of the Vice -11-

12 President was positiveness. We asked Mr. Chestnut can we do this? He said yes. Would the Vice President like to meet people? He said yes. What about the few demonstrators that may be imported? He said the Vice President would like to guarantee their constitutional rights of free speech of the first amendment. So, can we do this? Yes. All we got from his aides, all we got from the agents were yes. And I can recognize tonight as the Vice President spoke again, positively, notof really of the trouble but really of solutions, but I can recognize the magazine truly spoke correctly when they said the greatest attribute of this great American is positiveness or forwardness or go as all of us call it. I think it would be remiss on my part if I ended this gathering for the Vice President and Mrs. Humphrey without acknowledging the help of so many people. As I see the members of the State, House of Representatives, Representative Garcia, Representative Hara, Representative Pule, Representative Serizawa, Representative Takarnine and members of the Board of Supervisors, Supervisor Chong, Supervisor Yadao, members of the Administrative Office like the County Attorney, Mr. Tanaka, Mr. De Mello the Auditor, Mr. Bento the Treasurer - and all of Mr. Higashihara from Kona here. Our members of the State Senate and all of the so many of the public officials who were so receptive in joining with us in welcoming the Vice President, I'd like to extend the Big Island's extreme appreciation to all of them. And of course to all of you; to Sparky, the congressional delegation, we extend our deep appreciation. To one particular individual who is not here tonight, I must extend our deeper' appreciation, for it was Danny, Senator Daniel K. Inouye, who did so much in welcoming and urging the Vice President to come here. Certainly the Vice President wanted to come -12-

13 . '.. but Danny did so much for us in helping to coordinate and picked up so much of the questions that we fielded to him, we sent to him rather in Washington. I know that Danny would like to extend his deepest Aloha to all of you and I know that he will come back and visit with us again in the near future. (CLAPPING) I recognize the great help that the Governor and Kenny and Mrs. Brown and all these individuals have given us from the State level but I think the real credit should be given to all of you, to the young people, to all of the Big Islanders in this County of Hawaii. For it is you who have welcomed the Vice President with the greatest number of people with the most tumultuous welcome this Big Island has ever seen in its history when last night you welcomed him and I can recognize why you did because the night before we had thunder and rainstorm and the rainiest city in the world in Hilo, yet when the Vice President came all we saw were stars, moon and I thought I saw heaven go by up there. But I think in conclusion, we can say this. We ought to thank all of the Big Islanders, our fellow Big Islanders for welcoming them at this public reception for respecting the privacy when they were resting and I think the Aloha shirt that the Vice President wears really typifies the Vice President, Mrs. Humphrey and Mrs. Solomonson and all their guests the best. It says "Hawaii No Ka Oi". But the Aloha shirt really should say, "Vice President No Ka Oi" - "the best". Thank you very much and good evening. -13-

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